Will Hay Collection [DVD]

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The director Marcel Varnel considered the film as among his best work, [11] and it was described in 2006, by The Times in its obituary for writer Val Guest, as "a comic masterpiece of the British cinema". [12] Jimmy Perry, in his autobiography, wrote that the trio of Captain Mainwaring, Corporal Jones and Private Pike in Dad's Army was inspired by watching Oh, Mr Porter! [13] Legacy [ edit ]

Turnbotham Round has no crime, something that becomes common knowledge after a radio programme is broadcast from the village. Upon hearing this broadcast, the top brass at Scotland Yard send word that if there is no crime there, then why employ policemen to police the village? Realising that their good lives are about to come to an end, inept coppers Dudfoot (Will Hay), Brown (Graham Moffatt) and Harbottle (Moore Marriott) set about making some arrests. What they hadn't bargained for was the uncovering of a smuggling ring and the unleashing of the phantom headless horseman. In the mid-1940s he semi-retired from show business to become a publican with his wife, Joyce Muriel Hazeldine, whom he married in June 1948 and remained married to for 17 years until his death in July 1965. Together, they ran the Swan Inn at Braybrooke (near Market Harborough), followed by the Englishcombe Inn at Bath. Whilst landlord of the Swan Inn, Moffatt became good friends with local musician and actor Jim Dale who would often drink at the pub. [2] a b c d e "The Essay, British Film Comedians: Will Hay". BBC Radio 3. 13 April 2015 . Retrieved 9 May 2017. a b c d e f g h i j k "Will Hay – Master of Comedy". YouTube. BBC Radio 4. 2 June 1976 . Retrieved 10 May 2017. Once Stubbins discovers what is happening it is too late and his fingerprints are all over the bank safe.Hay was scheduled to star in another film for Ealing in 1943, Bob's Your Uncle, but his diagnosis of cancer prevented him from proceeding. [27]

He was known to be a hypochondriac, and would often complain of illness to his colleagues when working. [6]Despite the majority of the film being set in Northern Ireland, none of the filming took place there; the railway station at Buggleskelly was the disused Cliddesden railway station on the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway, which had closed to goods in 1936. [1] Oh, Mr Porter! was filmed at Cliddesden between May and July 1937. All the interior shots were made at Gainsborough Studios, Shepherds Bush, during the August. [2] The windmill in which Porter and his colleagues are trapped is located at Terling, Essex, [3] and "Gladstone", the ancient steam locomotive, was portrayed by No. 2 Northiam 2-4-0T built by Hawthorn Leslie in 1899 and loaned by the Kent and East Sussex Railway to the film. The engine was returned to the company after completion of the film and remained in service until 1941, when it was scrapped. [4] [5] Comedians who have cited Hay as an influence include Ken Dodd, [43] Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper, Harry Worth, [22] Harry Enfield, Jimmy Perry and David Croft. [10] Ronnie Barker also cited Hay as an influence, and in 1976 hosted a documentary on BBC Radio that discussed Hay's life and career. [6] Legacy [ edit ] The Will Hay Appreciation Society's 'Buggleskelly' memorial bench to Will Hay and his co-stars, unveiled on Sunday 14 October 2018 in Cliddesden, Hampshire, the filming location for 'Oh, Mr. Porter!' Colonel Stephens' New Locomotives". The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum, Tenterden, Kent . Retrieved 13 May 2011. Marriott was born at Alpha Place, Yiewsley, Middlesex, on 14 September 1885, the son of George Matthew Marriott (1859–1940), who was then a commercial traveller, and his wife, Edith Rousby, née Coleman (1864–1946). His parents were actors, and his father became a theatrical manager. Moore Marriott made his stage debut at the age of five. He had originally intended to train as an architect, but instead he became an actor in films. [3] Rather like Wilfrid Brambell and Clive Dunn later, he became typecast as playing old men when he was still relatively young. He had a special set of artificial teeth which he would put in to play his 'old man' characters. He had no teeth in real life and took four different sets of false teeth with him to achieve variety in his characters. The film was produced by Gainsborough Pictures, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released on 28 August, 1939.

Porter writes a note and places it in Harbottle's 'medicine' bottle. He throws it through the window of the station master's office when they pass a large station,alerting the authorities. The entire railway goes into action, closing lines and re-routing trains until Gladstone can crash into a siding where the gun runners are arrested by waiting police. Pathé, British. " 'Star' Turns Star Gazer Will Hay Discovers Spot On Saturn. 'School-Master Comedian' Tells How He Located White Blemish On Planet". www.britishpathe.com . Retrieved 9 June 2021. a b "Hay, William Thomson [Will] (1888–1949)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/37522. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)His first film for the studio was Boys Will Be Boys, whose screenplay was written by Hay himself. The movie's satire on the public school system was loosely based on the Narkover vein of humour in the work of Daily Express columnist, Beachcomber. Hay's film was widely seen as subversive towards authority, and it was granted an 'A' (adult) certificate by the British Board of Film Classification. [11] Boys Will Be Boys is widely regarded as Hay's break-out film. Writing for The Spectator, Graham Greene described the film as "very amusing", and Hay's portrayal of Dr. Smart as "competent", though Green thought Claude Dampier's portrayal of Second Master Finch (Hay's adversary) was the film's "finest performance". [14] Many years later, the Radio Times Guide to Films gave Boys Will Be Boys three stars out of five, observing that the film contains "the blend of bluster and dishonesty that makes his films irresistible". [15]